Archive for the tag “Republican flip-flop”

Rachel Maddow began last nights show discussing Mitt Romney’s flip-flop on what is becoming the highly controversial Blunt Amendment.

When asked about the amendment being put forth by Blunt and Rubio to allow employers to ban female contraception, Mitt Romney replied, “I’m not for the bill, I’m not going there”, he said in an interview.

Interestingly, when he discovered this particular amendment was part of the Conservatives long-term goal, (discussed below) he quickly released a statement recanting his previous comment, by claiming, “I didn’t understand his question, of course I support the Blunt Amendment.”

The Blunt-Rubio –Amendment would not only allow employers to ban contraception for women, but would also let employers pick and choose what type of health coverage their employees are allowed to receive. As pointed out by Rachel Maddow, “Your boss decides whether or not you get it!”

There are ALL of these reasons, Rachel says, why Republicans should not pick this fight right, which she explains one by one in turn.

– Hypocrisy of Republicans flip-flopping on this issue

– Polling data showing people are against it

– Distraction from what Republicans should be focusing on, jobs!

Rachel says, “They know all these things. Why are they doing it anyway? When they decided to pursue the Blunt amendment in the Senate and lose on it and then keep going on it. Why are they doing that? “What is it that is more advantageous to them in pursuing all of this stuff, then all of its obvious downsides?”

“I think its framing. I think it’s the overall long-term conservative goal of framing anything that Democrats are for as a Government intrusion into your life that you are going to resent.” BINGO!!

She then proceeded to discuss the manipulator himself, Frank Luntz, who advises Republicans what to say and how to say it to convince people to support their radical agenda by framing Democrats for actions the GOP is guilty of committing. Frank Luntz told republicans, “Don’t be against reform, be against a Government take-over of healthcare, be against Government intrusion into your lives.”

As pointed out by Rachel, if the language used in the healthcare debate worked, then why not use this language for birth control too. “Don’t say its about contraception, don’t say its about women at all, say its about a big Government takeover, say its about Government intrusion, say its about Government pushing its way into your space.”

This is EXACTLY what they are doing. For a visual of this framing effort in action, take a look at this MUST SEE clip! Eugene Robinson, political analyst on the program said, “you can’t really claim Government intrusion if your doing the intruding.”